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I've got yet another dreaded observation coming up and thought I'd do something different! So I've decided to do a history lesson and the current topic is Ancient Egypt. Just wondering if anyone has any amazing ideas or better still an outstanding lesson plan? Would appreciate any help... ideas, resources etc as desperately need to do an impressive obs!

I'd do something like instructions for making a mummy, then you can say it's cross-curricular with Literacy and gain extra brownie points. Make a super-duper powerpoint or adapt one that's already there!

On a different tack, role play is good! Don't know what age they are, but you could do stuff about mummification then get them to re-enact it, with one child (the noisiest one) acting as the corpse?

Might be a bit out there but my mum once did tutenkaman's funeral as a piece of drama with costumes and it was really effective- all the different parts the kids made masks and costumes, there's hieroglyphics (sorry can't spell that!)you could do secret messages. Eygptian art, make masks of the gods with plaster bandages modelled on the chn's faces um.. that's about all I can think of now!

The Big Dig is a good one!
(Not my idea, one I gleaned from this site I hasten to add!)
Worked a treat with my Year 4 class last year.

*Make a few Egyptian artifacts from plasticene.
*Bury each of them in a tray of sand

Introduction to lesson - whole class discussion about how we know what we know about history (i.e. clues from what we find etc). Talk about archeologists, Howard Carter etc.

*Divide class into small groups (carefully selected by you in advance).
*Supply each group with a tray of sand/selection of lolly sticks and paint brushes
*Pupils work carefully to 'excavate' their artifact (just like an archeologist)
*Pupils draw their object and predict what they think it might be
*Pupils research their artifact in books/printouts etc, to see how accurate they are
Plenary - children display their artifact and reveal what it is to the rest of the class

If you search the resources, there is a nice worksheet for the kids to draw on/complete.

Not only are the children learning about Ancient Egypt, they are also learning how we find out about history.
I still look back fondly at this lesson ... the kids loved it and I believe they learned so much!

I did something simi8liar, but based around artifacts that were fiund in tombs or temples, the children ahd to reasearch them to find out which god or goddess they represented. This was a lesson ob which i got an outstanding for.

Someg, your idea sounds fab! Could you give me more details about the lesson or possibly the lesson plan? What kind of artefacts did you use or where did you get them from? I love this topic and really want the kids to learn loads and have fun too! Thanks for all the ideas so far!